


The Light Of A New Day

by ladyoneill



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angelcest, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canonical Character Death, M/M, Religious Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-18
Updated: 2014-08-18
Packaged: 2018-02-13 01:34:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2132082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyoneill/pseuds/ladyoneill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabriel and Lucifer's relationship was long, varied, complicated, and much more than "brotherly love".  And then Lucifer killed him, but even that didn't bring a close to what they are to each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Light Of A New Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Meatball42](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meatball42/gifts).



> I've long enjoyed exploring/creating my own versions of Heaven and Hell (with nods to Mike Carey and Neal Gaiman) and applying bits and pieces of it to other fandoms, so I've done that here. I've also messed with the timeline. Canon says that Lucifer went into the cage right after falling but I made it much later. Also, the end of Season 5 went very differently. It's my theory that angels when they die go to Purgatory.
> 
> Anyway, I think I avoided things my recipient didn't want and hopefully gave Meatball42 and everyone else an interesting story with loads of character development and just a bit of smut.
> 
> Oh, and I'm not Christian. This might seem a bit sacrilegious to anyone who is a devout Christian but I don't think it's anymore so than the way the show deals with religion and Heaven, Hell, God, angels.

Purgatory sucks. It's boring and full of beings he'd rather gouge out his eyes with a rusty fork than speak to. And there's no candy.

No candy!

There's no concept for passing time either and everything is grey like there's an eternal mist settled over the place.

It kind of reminds Gabriel of the Pacific Northwest in winter.

At least his sense of humor remains intact.

So, the former archangel, currently dead inhabitant of the worst place any creator ever created--really Dad? No candy?--sits in a cave on top of a mountain and contemplates his navel--or would, if he had one.

He does wonder if the War has begun. While he's pretty sure, unless he's completely wasted--which is sadly a possibility--that Dean will continue to be a stubborn son of a bitch and deny Michael, the last time Gabriel saw Sam, he was already teetering. The big lug was always the weaker willed of the pair.

Yeah, he'll give in to Lucifer.

Lucifer.

Damn.

Why did he have to think about him? The day was going so well in its perpetual greyness. Nothing had attacked him. None of his brothers or sisters had swung by to bore him to tears. He'd won five out of seven of his own tic-tac-toe games drawn in the dirt.

Depression settles over his shoulders and he flops down on his back and stares at the craggy ceiling barely five feet above him.

Damn.

Rubbing his chest, Gabriel wonders if he at least made a glorious corpse.

*****

In the light of new suns being born every moment, the Silver City glistens. The air smells new and fresh. As the four walk the winding paths, flowers bloom at each step. Feeling their Father's benediction, they smile and name them: rose, peony, sunflower, daisy and so many more. Around them pure white stone forms into structures. Soon they'll be filled with their brethren, but for now it's just them.

Michael, Lucifer, Raphael and Gabriel. The first of many to come, born at a thought, whole and beautiful, their huge white wings lifting them to soar in that first warm breeze before they even took their first steps.

They are the archangels and this is their home.

Set a top a series of marble steps is a huge silver door, and they ascend to find their Father on His throne, welcoming them with open arms. They bask in His Glory and listen to His Word.

Later, the four sit in a meadow of wildflowers, their hearts filled with love and their mouths crying welcoming words as they watch the births of the lesser angels. Gabriel smiles the first smile and takes Lucifer's hand, sees Michael do the same to Raphael, and they rise to greet their siblings. With every angel born a star winks into existence and the sky floods with light.

Something stirs within him and he opens his mouth to let it out.

Gabriel sings.

Lucifer swings him into a dance.

Everything is peaceful. Everything is perfect.

That first day.

*****

Gabriel didn't see it coming. Even as they lay together, curled around each other, murmuring and singing to each other, he never suspected.

Lucifer never betrayed his plans, never spoke a word out of turn. Truly the Prince of Lies.

All over humans? Why? Why go to war over such tiny, finite creatures? Because their Father loves them? He loves the angels as well. He made them first. Because He asked them to love the humans more than Him? Why should that matter? Love is infinite; it knows no bounds, has no true measure, whether for human, angel, or the Creator Himself.

Gabriel understands this. He loves the humans. He loves his siblings. He loves His Father. 

Love is simply love.

Why can't Lucifer see that?

Exhaustion--Gabriel knows it but it is new to him--sweeps over him, drives him to his knees on the bloody, torn field that once was full of wildflowers, now trampled and ruined.

Everything is trampled and ruined.

There are wounds on his body, blood seeping from them. They...hurt. He's never been hurt before, never suffered a wound or bled. It's frightening, but at least he survives.

In the distance the battle continues, but around him are the bloody, broken bodies of his brothers and sisters. They are empty, their essences gone. 

Too many, from both sides.

How did Lucifer recruit so many without anyone realizing?

Or...or did their Father realize? Was this all part of some great, ineffable plan?

Gabriel's heart aches, Tears, also something new, sting his eyes, and he uses his sword, stained with blood, its edges dulled, to push himself back to his feet. He feels...old.

Carefully he steps over broken swords, burnt feathers, around bodies torn and empty, heading towards the final confrontation on the edge of Heaven. Dimly he notes that not all those strewn across the ground are gone. Others are wounded as he is. Still others tend them, but he waives off all aid, even from Raphael who weeps openly as he tries to heal those too far gone.

There's no sign of their Father--hasn't been for the entire battle, Gabriel realizes--but Lucifer and Michael remain standing, shouting at each other, swords locked as they strain their bruised and bloodied bodies against each other.

Gabriel sheathes his own sword. While he fought those angels who rebelled, he can't fight Lucifer. He doesn't understand how Michael can.

The four...they are one.

"Stop." His voice croaks out, his mouth tasting of ash and blood, his throat sore from breathing in the stench of death.

No angel has ever died before this horrible day.

His brothers ignore him and their swords ring making his ears hurt.

"Stop," Gabriel tries again, putting all the power of his lungs behind his cry.

"It is my duty," Michael growls as he and Lucifer spin in a horrible dance, cutting each other, sending blood flying.

Some hits Gabriel--he's that close--and he flinches in horror.

"Always the good son," Lucifer sneers, swinging for Michael's head. Barely avoiding the killing blow Michael falls back for a moment, and Lucifer turns to Gabriel, a softening crossing his face, though his eyes...his eyes glow white.

The unnerving light, not the golden light of the Morning Star, sends a shiver through Gabriel.

"I wish I could have asked you to be at my side, Gabriel."

"Why didn't you?" 

"You would have denied me," Lucifer replies sadly, "As long as I didn't ask, you couldn't do so or betray my plans."

Gabriel feels like his heart his going to burst from his chest. Again he falls to his knees, this time in pain and supplication. "Brother, please, beg forgiveness. No sin is too great..."

"No." Lucifer takes a step towards the edge and, when their eyes meet, Gabriel realizes what he's doing. "My own choice. My own will. Free will, Gabriel. When you discover this to be more necessary than our Father's love, you'll join me." 

As Michael cries out and charges, Lucifer steps off the edge.

And falls.

Moaning in horror, Gabriel scrambles over to the spot and then draws back in horror. No longer is it simply a starlit void. There is a fiery maelstrom of red and black and gold. A foul aroma of rot comes from it, flames flicker in it. Through it, into it, Lucifer is falling, his wings burning to black to join a few of his fellow rebels who tumble beneath him. Their horrified cries pierce Gabriel's ears, but Lucifer is silent.

"What...what is that place?"

"Father calls it Hell," Michael says emotionlessly before he turns to grab a half-dead rebel angel and fling him after Lucifer. At the hands of the victors, others follow, shrieking in anger and fear. Even Raphael, the gentlest among them, callously shoves one into the fire.

The sounds of the dying slowly fade as they and the wounded are removed to heal or pass beyond in comfort. Fresh flowers bloom on the bloody field. The air clears and the silver light of Heaven returns.

But...there is a tarnish to it now.

Gabriel stays at the edge until the entrance to this Hell, this Pit closes on the last fallen angel.

He feels tarnished as well.

*****

Millennia later Gabriel stands on another bloody battlefield listening to the silence. Around him are strewn the bodies of the Nephilim, their human mothers, their angelic fathers. All dead by his sword and his Father's command.

His heart aches. He feels heartsick.

Heartsick.

Something no angel should ever feel and, for the first time, he understands how Lucifer and the others could rebel.

"I knew it was only a matter of time."

Slowly he turns to face his brother, the same, so very beautiful, except for the black wings. Feathers once burnt by the Fall have turned to ebony. 

"I obeyed," Gabriel replies, but his answer isn't strong or sure.

Lucifer smiles. "For now."

"You were still wrong."

"'But, now you can understand my reasoning just a bit."

He doesn't acknowledge the truth, but knows his brother can see it in his heart.

Like a cancer.

The fallen angel's wings brush against his own and Gabriel feels warm...loved.

He's missed this. An angel shouldn't miss anything.

Slowly, everything is going wrong.

"I'll see you soon, Gabriel," Lucifer whispers in his ear before vanishing.

He takes the warmth with him.

*****

The girl is weeping in confusion and fear and Gabriel has no clue how to comfort her. As always, he obeyed his Father's command, brought her the news and with one touch changed her life.

Ruined it?

He can't see this turning out well for anyone. A mortal child of their Father? How is that supposed to help?

Troubled, he watches the girl touch her stomach and there's no wonder on her face. Unmarried and poor will she even live to see the birth? Will she be cast out of her tribe, banished from her family?

How will she and the babe survive with nothing and no help?

Gabriel knows he's not supposed to think these questions. God's ineffable plan is not his to question or even wonder about.

But...he does.

And he knows his Father knows this is well.

Is this a test?

Leaving the girl behind in the desert he flies across the world to a great inland lake of salt water. The native tribes of the area are sparse, coming here only to harvest the salt a couple times a year. He won't be disturbed and it's peaceful and quiet.

Except, Lucifer is waiting for him, skipping stones across the buoyant water. Gabriel almost chuckles at the sight.

"God's ego knows no limits."

As he sets down behind him, Gabriel finds his hand on the hilt of his sword, instinctually ready to lash out at anyone disparaging his Father. Except, it is too easy to stay his hand. "I won't turn against Him ever, Lucifer."

Slowly the fallen angel turns and there's a look of almost sorrow on his face. "I never expected I would either."

"I've heard what Hell has become under your guidance, Lucifer. A place of eternal suffering, of torment and torture. Human souls twisted into demons. Was that our Father's plan?"

His wings stirring restlessly, Lucifer shrugs. "He no longer speaks to me. I was cut off from His Grace."

"You don't sound overly disturbed."

A truly wicked smile crosses his face. "I'm not. I have autonomy. I'm my own man, so to speak. Free will is a wonderful thing, brother. You should give it a try."

"And fall like you? I don't think so, Lucifer. I'm not a rebel. I love our Father with all my heart."

"Yet you're beginning to question His commands."

"I won't disobey them."

Lucifer sighs. "I still have hope for you, Gabriel."

"As I do for you."

They both vanish at the same moment.

*****

It's not long after that Gabriel makes his decision to leave Heaven, put down his sword and horn, and hide.

Lucifer finds him easily enough but, then, he's always been able to find him.

"Interesting." 

Gabriel tries to ignore his brother circling his body. _His_ body, not a vessel, but one he forged by earth magic from clay and salt and water, before imbuing it with his Grace to bring it to eternal life.

"How did you do it?"

"I'm not telling you that."

"Until my true vessel is born, I am trapped in these paltry things. They burn out much too fast."

It's true. Sometimes within a day, sometimes after a few months, but they all burn away. Already on this one there are places where the skin has flaked away revealing muscle and bone.

"I'm amazed any humans grant you permission."

"There are those who deem it an honor." 

"So, the rumor is true. You have followers."

Lucifer grins and throws his arms out wide. "Humans are ridiculous and stupid, though I must admit that those who prefer me over God, are a little less stupid."

Rolling his eyes, Gabriel crosses his arms over his chest and looks up at his brother. He found a tall one this time. "Why are you here?"

"To see you." He drops down onto a low couch draped with the skin of a lion. "I see you've taken to Roman ways in decor and dress. I like the short tunic. This new body of yours has very attractive knees."

At the leer, Gabriel frowns. "So that rumor is true as well. You have succumbed to lechery."

"You should try it. While I despise them and want them all dead, humans have their uses and with all that free will are quite imaginative. I find I quite enjoy the soft touch of a female, her curves, the heat of her cunt, or the developing muscles and strong touches of a young male, the tightness of his ass. Sex is one of God's greatest achievements."

Horrified and also intrigued against his will, Gabriel stares at his brother. "We are not meant to have sexual relations. We are beings of purity."

Lucifer scoffs, "Why? Why is this grand pleasure to be denied to us? Just one more arbitrary decision." He gestures to Gabriel's body. "You won't burn this body out. Make full use of it." With a rustle of wings, he vanishes and Gabriel slowly sinks down onto the seat he vacated, his mind whirling with new and dangerous thoughts.

*****

"I see you took my advice."

Turning lazy eyes on his brother who's lounging against the door frame, Gabriel stretches, then rises to his feet, unabashedly naked and slick with sweat and the lust of the girl sleeping in his bed. He scratches his chest, belches, then laughs. "Yes. You were right. Why let this body go to waste? And celibacy is highly overrated." Reaching for a tunic, he pulls it over his head then gestures for Lucifer to precede him into the triclinium where they lounge on facing couches with a low table between them. Two young men wearing only loincloths immediately enter with a jug of wine and two goblets, followed by a selection of meats, olives and flatbreads with bowls of herb-strewn oil.

"It's only been a year, Gabriel. I am impressed."

Shrugging, he pops a green olive in his mouth, delighting at the burst of flavor. "I don't understand why I waited so long. I've had a hundred vessels over the eons. I could have been eating and drinking and fucking my way around the world."

"God would not have approved." Lucifer sips his wine and chooses a piece of roast boar.

"Are you sure? I'm not. I have no idea anymore what all this is to Him. Some kind of grand experiment, I suppose, and we have roles to play. Maybe angels acting like humans is what He wants? It's not like He talked to any of us once the first human spoke His name."

"Careful, brother. You sound close to rebellion."

"No. I still won't turn against Him. I don't want to fight. I don't want to bring any attention to myself. I'm sorry, Lucifer, but that's not me. I much prefer to stay hidden and just live my eternal life without a care in the world."

"All right, I can accept that."

They both drink and change the subject to sex because it's still new to Gabriel and he can wax on about it forever. 

He misses the gleam in his brother's eye.

Some time near dawn Gabriel blinks blearily up at Lucifer from where he's sprawled across his bed--the girl long gone. He's sticky and sore and exhausted...and he loves it. Still, he feels the need to complain. "My ass hurts."

Smirking, Lucifer leans down to kiss him with a blatant carnality that leaves him breathless. "You're an angel. You're ass only hurts because you're allowing it to."

"...True." He gives Lucifer a coy look and raises and spreads his legs. "Make it hurt some more?"

"I've created a monster." The fallen angel laughs and crawls between those muscular legs, pulling them over his shoulders before sinking into him again.

"Sodomy should never have been a sin," Gabriel gasps out as his eyes roll back in his head. With one shaky hand, he reaches down to stroke his hardening penis.

"Nothing is a sin in my realm." Lucifer hits that spot inside him that makes Gabriel see stars, then leans down to nip behind one ear and make him moan in pleasure. "We can do anything we want."

"We already are."

"Tomorrow we fuck those lovely young slaves of yours."

"Yes," Gabriel hisses and pulls on his erection as Lucifer thrusts harder and harder.

"Anything and everything, Gabriel."

"Fuck yes!"

*****

"You're pushing it," Gabriel argues to Lucifer's back as the other angel gazes into the fire that warms one end of the longhouse. It is empty save for them, Gabriel having sent away his slaves and wives for this meeting. "You're drawing attention to yourself again. Michael has mostly ignored your excursions to Earth, but you're killing humans, Lucifer. You're overtly plotting their end, the end of everything. He can't allow that to continue."

"Michael won't do anything without his father's word," Lucifer sneers. "I'm tired of flames."

A gust of wind comes from nowhere and the hearth goes cold. Even though he doesn't need to, Gabriel shivers. It's always cold here, but, despite the hard winters, he enjoys living with the Norsemen, playing at being a wealthy jarl, marauding and trading alongside them, not to mention the women, with their big bosoms and blonde hair and bold laughs. He has three wives, all young and beautiful, to keep him warm at night.

"It's not time, Lucifer. Your destined vessels are many generations away from being born."

"You'd prefer it if they never were," he snaps back and Gabriel feels the chill grow inside himself as well as without.

They haven't fought in...They've never truly fought.

"I am frustrated, and sick of humans, Gabriel. I will bring this Earth to its knees and make it my own paradise. I want you with me."

Gabriel opens his mouth to respond and then closes it with a shake of his head. 

"If you're not with me, you're against me." With a snarl and a snap of his wings, Lucifer flies out the open window, and in an instant an avalanche from the mountains towering above the village sends a fury of snow and ice to bury it and Gabriel's home.

Of course he alone survives, heartsick for the first time in centuries, and he leaves the cold of Scandinavia for the warmer climes of the islands of the New World. The pagans there welcome him as much as the others, marveling at his pale skin and golden eyes, but he never enjoys himself quite as much again.

Keeping his ear to the ground, he knows within days of it happening of the confrontation with Michael and a whole battalion of angels that finally brings Lucifer down and ends his rampage. There are stories of a cage in the deepest pit of Hell and a lock that can only be opened when the end times come and sixty six of six hundred and sixty six seals are broken.

Gabriel mourns, but moves on because he has his own eternity and those end times will come soon enough.

*****

"I've been looking for you for a long time."

The voice is unfamiliar--after all, they only spent a few minutes together before Gabriel got a sword stuck in him--but the true voice beneath the human, that he knows as well as his own, as well as their Father's.

Slowly he rolls his head towards the entrance to the cave and blinks at Lucifer. "I see you're no longer rotting away."

"I see you're still a little shit."

At the amusement in the voice, on the face, Gabriel scowls and climbs to his feet, nearly cracking his head on the low ceiling. He really needs to find a better cave, one he can stand up in properly, but, at the moment, there are more important issues at hand. "What are you doing here? You actually lost?" He actually _lost_? And...not in Sam's body. 

Shrugging, Lucifer ducks his head and steps into the cave, then frowns at having to stay hunched over and backs out, gesturing for Gabriel to follow. He does so warily.

"Sam really said 'no'?"

"Such little faith you had in one of Father's glorious creations?"

That doesn't sound mocking. Gabriel frowns, because..."You didn't say 'your Father'." Since the Fall, Lucifer's never referred to God as 'his'.

He shrugs again and sits down on the ground to look down the mountain into the tree line a hundred feet below. Cautiously Gabriel joins him. "I'm sorry you feel you have to be wary around me."

"You did kill me." He doesn't bother trying to hide the bitterness.

"I'm sorry about that, too."

That Lucifer isn't lying just confuses him. He's not sure he's ever apologized to him.

"I was just so...angry about so much. This body was falling apart. Sam kept denying me. The Horsemen were failing. Death actually turned against me in the end and aided the Winchesters."

"Does that surprise you really? Death is more than just a Horseman."

Lucifer sighs. "True. And then...there you were, taking a side and it wasn't mine and that just...it hurt as much as Father turning from me," he says softly, sadly. "The rage that built in me during a thousand years trapped in that damn cage...It's not an excuse, but I've just been so angry at everything for so very long."

"You don't seem angry anymore."

"I lost. Dean's plan to trap me the cage again failed, but then Michael came out of nowhere in the body of yet another Winchester, some bastard of John's, and killed me. Just...killed me. And smiled while doing it. These millennia without Father have changed him."

"Changed us all."

"Yeah. If this was God's plan for us, it sucks."

Gabriel almost laughs at that, but then just nods in agreement.

"So, everything's over. I don't think Michael got his paradise. The last thing I saw was Dean and Sam going for him. Those two are...I _know_ Father had a hand in making them two of the most stubborn assholes ever born."

Gabriel does snort at that, because yeah. "No kidding. In two thousand years no one has talked me out of hiding and choosing a side, not even you, and they just kept hounding me to do the right thing until I caved. I still think this is all Dad's plan. Us being here, dead, too. I don't know. It sucks. Maybe He gave us free will after all and all this time we just thought we were doing what He said, following His plan."

"Maybe. I don't think we'll ever truly know. That's supposedly what faith's all about." Sighing, Lucifer glances over at Gabriel, a look of wistfulness on his face. "After the initial shock of losing, dying, and ending up here in Purgatory, I kind of lost most of my anger. I think it's because I knew you'd be here."

"If you think I'm going to forgive you for killing me and sending me here, you absolute dick..." Gabriel snaps only to be interrupted by Lucifer's mouth on his in a quick, hard kiss.

"Not any time soon, but I've heard hate sex can be pretty fantastic."

Shocked, Gabriel gapes at his smirking brother, even as arousal unfurls in the pit of his stomach. "No."

"That was an awfully weak 'no', Gabe."

"Fuck off."

Grinning, Lucifer grabs his arms and rolls him beneath him in the dirt, sliding one knee between his squirming thighs, and kissing him again.

This time Gabriel responds for several, breathless minutes, before pulling back and narrowing his eyes. "You really want to make it up to me for killing me?"

Lucifer's lust-filled look turns a bit wary. "...Yes."

Grinning widely, he flips them, straddling the former fallen angel's hips and pressing down on his shoulders to pin him. "Let me top."

"Is that all?"

"It's a start."

Giving him a put-upon sigh, Lucifer nods and Gabriel makes a gleeful noise.

The grey skies of Purgatory lighten just a bit on a new day.

End


End file.
